Culture

Sunday Comics: The Eyes Have It

Welcome to Kotaku‘s Sunday Comics, your weekly roundup of the best webcomics, chosen by our readership. The images enlarge if you click on the magnifying glass icon in the lower right corner. Brawl In The Family by Matthew Taranto. Published May 14. Read more of Brawl In The Family Penny Arcade by Jerry Holkins and…

This Week in the Business: ‘What a Bunch of Elitist B.S.’

What’s happened in the business of video games this past week … QUOTE | “That idea of saying, ‘you’re not allowed.’ What a bunch of elitist bullshit. Go [expletive] yourself.”—David Jaffe, veteran designer, talking about consulting on a Kickstarter for Autoduel and why critics of some Kickstarters annoy him QUOTE | “The downside didn’t appear…

Adventure Time’s Jake Is Giving Me Nightmares

Thomas Lishman is a British-based freelance artist who specializes in digital sculpting. You’ll find a selection of his work below. The Adventure time pieces are a definite highlight. “Real” Jake will be serving as nightmare fuel for many a day to come. You can see more of Thomas’ work at his personal site and DeviantArt…

And Now I Have To Pay $25 For A Bag Of Chips. Happy, Lay’s?

Last week Lay’s decided to award the U.S. potato chip prize to Cheesy Garlic Bread, the least interesting of the three “Do Us a Flavor” competitors. A little over a third of America voted for it, allegedly. That leaves a little under two-thirds of America to the mercy of price-gouging jerks on Amazon and eBay…

The Frenchmen Of The Future Have Enormous Heads

This is the art of Fred Augis, who works at French developer Dontnod entertainment, the guys behind Capcom’s upcoming Remember Me. It’s a beautiful game, and Augis is part of a very talented team, so this is a real treat. Prior to joining Dontnod, Augis worked freelance, and has also been employed at places like…

The Realest Ninja Turtle You’ll Ever See

Today on Fine Art we’re looking at the work of Ian Olsen, an artist at Terminal Reality, the developers of games like Bloodrayne, Ghostbusters and…Kinect Star Wars. Previously, he’s been at Sony and Retro, where he got to work on Metroid Prime 3. It’s not every day a Western artist gets to work on a…

Robot Apes, Robot Ladies, Robot…Robots…

Freelance British artist Darren Bartley has worked with companies like Crytek and Runescape developers Jagex. Don’t let the Runescape links fool you; you’re about to see a lot of killer robots. And animals turned into killer robots. You can see more of Darren’s work – including more lemurs – at his personal site and CGHub…

The Week in Games: Metrospecial

THQ’s bankruptcy couldn’t kill it. Now, Metro: Last Light finally arrives for the big three—PC, PS3 and 360. Manhunt resurfaces on PSN and Zen Studios’ awesome pinball simulator debuts on Steam. The Week in Games is brought to you by Dealzon Tuesday • Metro: Last Light (360, PS3, PC) • Nancy Drew: Ghost of Thornton…

Sunday Comics: Tama-Gotcha

Welcome to Kotaku‘s Sunday Comics, your weekly roundup of the best webcomics, chosen by our readership. The images enlarge if you click on the magnifying glass icon in the lower right corner. Nerd Rage by Andy Kluthe. Published May 10. Read more of Nerd Rage Penny Arcade by Jerry Holkins and Mike Krahulik. Published May…

This Week in the Business: A Second Chance to Make a Bad Impression

What’s happened in the business of video games this past week … QUOTE | “‘We realize that those negative impressions exist.”—Precursor Games CEO Paul Caporicci, explaining that the company, composed mostly of ex-Silicon Knights employees, will make better games than the critical and commercial dud X-Men: Destiny QUOTE | “The disappointing launch of the Wii…

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Turtles With Guns Are Top Of The Evening’s Food Chain

Based in Germany, Markus Lovadina currently works as both a freelancer and in the advertising business, but has previously helped out companies like Ubisoft, Activision and Acclaim. Lovadina’s done everything from environments to character design, so there’s a nice mix of styles and types of work below. To see more of his stuff, you can…

If You Play Board Games, You’ll Know This Man’s Art

Henning Ludvigsen is art director at Rock Pocket Games, so if you like the colourful, cartoony style of upcoming platformer Oliver & Spike, he’s one of the people to thank. You should also thank him if you’ve ever played anything from Fantasy Flight Games. For the tabletop and card game giants Ludvigsen has lent his…

Adding A Touch Of Class To Game Of Thrones

Natascha Röösli works at Rock Pocket Games, the developers behind the very promising indie platformer Oliver & Spike But that’s not why we’re here today. No, we’re here for her beautiful work on trading card games, like Game of Thrones, and board games like Arkham Horror. You can see more of Natascha’s work at her…

Tasteless Americans Choose Lay’s Cheesy Garlic Bread Chips

The votes have been tallied, and the results are in — U.S. potato chip consumers are boring and disappointing. The Lay’s “Do Us a Flavor” promotional contest saw folks voting for one of three user-generated flavors — Chicken and Waffles, Sriracha or cheesy garlic bread. I tasted them all, and the winner was as clear…

Batman, 80s Ladies And…Walking Sharks

Dan LuVisi is a concept artist who has worked in motion pictures, advertising and comics. He’s also done some video game work, for companies like Collission Games and Acony, the now-closed developers of Bullet Run A reminder: Fine Art showcases not just an artist’s professional work, but their personal projects as well (like his own…

The Week in Games: Forget That Mother

Few new games this week, probably because Mother’s Day is a week from now. And don’t you feel awful for looking for another video game to buy instead of thinking of a gift for her. Some PSN and eShop releases are accompanied the Steam release of Pinball FX 2 (and its Star Wars tables). That’s…

Sunday Comics: Canon Fodder

Welcome to Kotaku‘s Sunday Comics, your weekly roundup of the best webcomics, chosen by our readership. The images enlarge if you click on the magnifying glass icon in the lower right corner. Nerf NOW!! by Josué Pereira. Published May 2. Read more of Nerf NOW!! Penny Arcade by Jerry Holkins and Mike Krahulik. Published April…

This Week in the Business: What Have You Done For Me Lately?

What’s happened in the business of video games this past week … QUOTE | “If your latest game doesn’t do well that’s probably the end of it for you no matter whether you’re big or small.”—Dan Paladin, developer of Castle Crashers, talking about how unstable the industry is for both large and small developers QUOTE…

Having Helped Build Halo 4, He’s Now Building Worlds At Valve

I like to think of Paul Pepera’s art as the realisation of childhood dreams. Rendering what we imagined our LEGO constructions to be in our heads, not as they actually looked, all clunky and basic and sharp. Now an artist at Valve, Pepera has also worked at places like 343 Studios, id Software and Timegate,…